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Troll (Earthdawn)
The Trolls are a playable race in the tabletop RPG Earthdawn. Description The average troll height is 8 feet, 6 inches and average weight is 500 pounds of more. Skin colors range from olive to mahogany-brown. Troll skin has a rough texture, increased by the ridges, spines, or plating resulting from deposits of trolthelia, a substance similar to the material in rhinoceros horn. Body hair is sparse except on the chest, and head hair grows considerably thicker and longer than human hair. Lower canines protrude from the mouths of a slight majority of trolls. The nose is broader than the human nose. Trolls exhibit fierce, aggressive personalities. The average natural life span is 50 years, thought some trolls have lived into their seventies. Trolls reach physical maturity in their early teens. Trolls are fiercely loyal to their family or clan. Multiple clans can organize through the ritual of the trollmoot, gatherings of several clans whose leaders swear the loyalty of their clans to one another, but such unified action remains rare. Troll clans often war among themselves when other enemies are lacking. Trolls prefer to live in caves, ice caverns, or other natural geographic features. They find dwarf or elven settlements more comfortable than human or ork communities, and have been known to camp around obsidimen connected to a Liferock. Trolls find the serenity of the obsidimen calming and deeply moving. Their regard for the obsidimen mountains often prompts trolls to choose those sites for trollmoots. Racial abilities The racial abilities of a Troll are as follows: *Heat Sight *Minimum strength value of 11 *Minimum Toughness Value of 11 Heat Sight A character with heat sight can see heat sources. Temperature differences translate into colors; for example, slight differences in temperature register as a dull red. As the temperature difference between an object or person and the background increases, the temperature differences register in spectrum order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. Extreme temperature differences register as white. Heat sight as a range of 250 yards. The same object reflects a different color/heat intensity against different background temperatures. A human lying in a summer meadow might appear as a slightly brighter spot of red in a crimson field. If standing in a snowdrift, the same person would appear as a brighter, more visible yellow-orange. Culture Most other races recognize that trolls are governed by honor, but do not understand the many things that honor means to a troll. For a troll to explain the distinctions between the various meanings of their honor is like a bird trying to explain what it is to be a bird. Paradoxically, only a troll could even attempt to explain their view of honor, because only a troll understands it. What a troll calls "honor" actually encompasses two ideas: honor and pride. Troll honor combines recognition of abilities with a sense of dignity and personal worth. Their honor tells them who they are and what they can accomplish. Without it, trolls believe they have nothing by which to know themselves and nothing to give to the world; they are Nameless and useless, and might as well die. The troll language has no single word for his concept of honor. Instead, they use three words: katorr, kat'tral, and katera, the meaning of all of which are simultaneously related and separate. Katorr translates most closely as personal honor, the pride an individual troll feels in himself. Kat'ral refers to the honor of a troll clan, and katera might best be translated as racial honor. These three kinds of honor are intertwined like the strands of a rope, woven so closely together that they blend into a single thing. Yet, all the strands remain separate. The intricacies of the links between katorr, kat'ral, and katera are central to the life of a troll. Language The standard language of the Troll is considered to be of average difficulty to read and write, with numerous other dialects being more difficult. It is considered harder than Dwarf (considered the easiest of the higher race languages to read and write), but is considered on par with the complexities of the languages of the Elves, Humans, and Ork. It is less complex than the languages of the Obsidimen, T'skrang, and the Windlings. Disciplines Trolls are known to take on the disciplines of Air Sailor, Archer, Beastmaster, Cavalryman, Elementalist, Illusionist, Nethermancer, Sky Raider, Swordmaster, Troubadour, Warrior, Weaponsmith, or Wizard. However, due to their massive size, weight, and low dexterity and agility, no known Troll has ever been found to be a Scout or Thief. Background history Troll legend tells us that many hundreds of years ago, long before the Scourge or even the Orichalcum Wars, most trolls married in the same way as other Name-givers. A man and a woman mated, raised children, and passed their family name and lineage in this way from generations to generations. But with the advent of the Orichalcum Wars, many troll clans and families saw their ancient Names die out. All too often, the father and son(s) of a single family would be slain in the same battle, forever ending many noble bloodlines. In an attempt to ensure that a family might endure throughout years of warfare, two and sometimes three families within a single clan began joining together into a single family, increasing both their number and the likelihood that some scions of that family would survive and carry on. These joinings came to be called "line marriages." Because far more men than women died in battle, the women took charge of the line marriages. All the wives together chose new members of the family as needed, adding both husbands and wives. Within several years, the practice of line marriages spread throughout most of the troll clans and moots in Barsaive. even after the Oricalcum Wars ended, the tradition of the line marriage continued; current members of the families involved had never known any other way, and the marriages had preserved family lineage that otherwise would have died out. Over the centuries, the tradition of line marriages has become an important part of troll society and culture. Category:Earthdawn Universe Category:Creatures Category:Fictional Creatures Category:Sapient Beings Category:Humanoids Category:Trolls Category:Unknown Diet Category:Magical Creatures